The Dark Knight- Media Codes

8/10/2019 The Dark Knight- Media Codes

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The DarkKnightThe joker- MediaCodes

Eleanor


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visual At the start, it is obvious that there are two differentpersonalities in the room. The joker has very dark lighting

which contrasts with the lighter background for the man.

When the lights flicker on, the jokers face is made much

clearer emphasising his features further.

The Jokers face paint hides his real emotions in a way.

The red smile dripping evokes connotations of blood as

apposed to a happier smile. This contrasts with his pale

white face, which looks skeleton/skull-like, ghostly andcould connote death.


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visual The confined, small room is extremely basic with nomajor props. This connotes to the audience that they are

in a prison cell/room.

The handcuffs represent that he is a serious villain that

must be restrained.

The lighting goes from almost pitch black and barely

seeing the jokers face to bright lights highlighting every

feature of his spooky face. This change in lighting also

allows us to see the action scenes much more clearly.


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AUDIO- diegetic

sound The sudden amplified sound of the: door shutting, handcuffs

slamming onto the table and the jokers head being whacked

onto the desk engages the audience and makes them jump

due to the short, sharp volume increase.

The Jokers tone of voice and dialogue is extremely strange asit changes tempo and volume at random intervals- from

whispers to shouts. Furthermore, the heavy breathing and

constant swallowing could connote his uncomfortable position

and thus the audience may be obliged to feel the same.

The Jokers voice is quite softly spoken which contrasts

drastically with his personality- with him being the villain of the

film. We can tell this due to his intentions of killing two

innocent people.


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AUDIO- non-

diegetic sound

The backing music when the audience see Batmans facehitting the joker for the first time, a booming, heartbeat-like

soundtrack plays on top. This could be to increase the

suspense of the scene by making the audiences heart rate

gradually speed up- almost mimicking the sound from the

scene.

When the joker states he is not a monster, a high pitched

chime noise plays, however he is interrupted by the diegetic

sound of batmans chair scraping backwards and him ramming

his arms onto the joker- yanking him out of his seat.

The backing music then resumes to the booming heartbeat-

although due to the previous violent actions, is much faster

and louder this time.


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CAMERA Close up shot of the jokers face as the lights flicker on-highlights the red slits either side of his face. This

emphasises his violence, eeriness and scary smile which

should connote happiness, but actually signifies a

demon/evil.


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CAMERA Eye level camera angle for both batman and the jokercould represent their equal status and authority.

Over shoulder shots are used to focus on the characters

facial expressions and emotions they're going through.

The fact that this is at eye-level to the camera allows theaudience to understand their perspective better. For

example, we can


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CAMERA

When Batman grabs the joker, the camera pans out to awide shot in order for the audience to see the full extent

of the violence. This leads into the next camera shot in

which batman is looking down on the joker through the

use of a low angle shot. This may connote that Batman is

now more in control.

Also, the camera is looking down on the joker in the more

violent scenes to connote that he is not as physically

strong as Batman.

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The Dark Knight- Media Codes